Convicted rapist won't be released, sent to treatment facility instead

Tommie Lee Andrews was set to be released on Oct. 31

Posted: 5:36 PM, October 24, 2012Updated: 5:36 PM, October 24, 2012

ORLANDO, Fla. - The jury has determined on Wednesday a convicted serial rapist is likely to offend again and will be committed to a sex offender treatment facility upon his release, indefinitely.

Tommie Lee Andrews, 49, was convicted back in 1988 in two Orlando-area violent rape cases by the use of his DNA--the first of its kind. Andrews was set to be released from custody on October 31 after serving nearly 25 years in prison.

The state wanted him committed to a Department of Children and Families-run sex offender treatment facility under Florida's Jimmy Ryce law, where the state can ask the inmate be committed to a rehabilitation facility before being released into the community.

Andrews had said earlier this week that if he was released from custody, he would move in with a woman in the Tampa he married while incarcerated about five months ago.

His wife testified that Andrews is family-oriented, even though she's only seen him in prison.

"He did not rape those women," she said on the stand, describing him as "caring, kind, loving and gentle."

The state rested its case earlier on Wednesday with testimony from more women who say they believe they were raped by Andrews even though their cases didn't go to trial.

A retired detective also testified on Wednesday that in the mid 1980s, there were between 21-23 women attacked by the same serial rapist, in which Andrews was put on trial for two of them.

One woman told jurors she was inside of her home in 1987 with her 3-year-old daughter asleep in the next room when she says Andrews sneaked in and attacked her.

Andrews was originally sentenced to more than 100 years in prison but due to some loopholes in state law and credit he received for good behavior, Andrews will have served only 25 years.

Andrews told jurors he didn't deserve to be sent to the facility.

"The very first thing I said upon being arrested is that I did not commit this crime, and I'm saying the same thing 25 years later," he said.

Watch Local 6 for more on this story.

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